Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

$50 trillion. That’s the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) estimated present value of the financial promises the federal government has made over the next 75 years. Medicare obligations represent more than $32 trillion of that amount, and have increased more than three-fold since 2000.

Now the scary part: We don’t have anywhere near the expected revenues to pay for those promises.

Why should you care?

Well, if you’re currently receiving or will soon qualify for Medicare, there will likely need to be significant reductions in the benefits offered to keep the program from going bankrupt.

And if you’re younger, there are several big reasons why you should care:

1. Your parents’ Medicare benefits will likely be reduced, and that, in turn, may directly affect their out-of-pocket costs and potential dependency on you to help pay for them.
2. Your taxes will likely be raised to keep Medicare solvent.
3. The level of Medicare benefits available today most certainly will not be available to future generations.

What You Need to Know

The GAO, the U.S. government’s accountant and investigative agency, is currently led by David Walker, comptroller general. Over the last year, Walker, his colleagues, and representatives from both conservative and progressive think-tanks have been touring the country as part of a Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, in an effort to alert this country’s citizens to the impending crisis.

This past Sunday, Walker took his compelling message to CBS News’ 60 Minutes:

U.S. Headed for Fiscal Crisis? (Wake Up Call)

The video segment is eye-opening and one that everyone who cares about the future of this country should watch.

Like an Old Testament prophet, David Walker has been traveling the country, urging people to “wake up before it’s too late.”

But David Walker is no wild-eyed zealot. As Steve Kroft reports, David Walker is an accountant, the nation’s top accountant to be exact, the comptroller general of the United States. He has totaled up our government’s income, liabilities, and future obligations and concluded the numbers simply don’t add up. And he’s not alone. Its been called the “dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows” – a set of financial truths so inconvenient that most elected officials don’t even want to talk about them, which is exactly why David Walker does …

… “The fact is, is that we don’t face an immediate crisis. And, so people say, ‘What’s the problem?’ The answer is, we suffer from a fiscal cancer. It is growing within us. And if we do not treat it, it could have catastrophic consequences for our country,” Walker replies.

The cancer, Walker says, are massive entitlement programs we can no longer afford, exacerbated by a demographic glitch that began more than 60 years ago– a dramatic spike in the fertility rate called the “baby boom.”

Today, there are approximately 4 working people for every 1 retired person in the U.S. In twenty years, there will only be about 2 working people for every 1 retired person. You don’t have to be a mathematician to understand that the funding for Medicare and other government spending is at severe risk going forward.

Meanwhile, health care and insurance costs continue to skyrocket each year at more than twice the rate of inflation and wage growth.

Like Walker says, it just doesn’t add up.

Bottom Line

Dramatic changes will occur in the Medicare program over the next couple of decades. The system we have now is simply unsustainable. There will undoubtedly need to be a combination of tax increases and benefit cuts to maintain a workable system. The longer we wait, the more draconian the changes will need to be.

As individuals, one of the most important things we can do to reduce the effects of these upcoming changes is to stay healthy, to avoid the expensive chronic conditions that account for the vast majority of health care costs. And, one of the best ways to do that is with nutrition.

Nutrition is the primary factor that determines whether you’ll develop a chronic disease. Fortunately, it’s a factor that you can control. Those people who take preventive steps now will be better off and reduce the need to draw upon what will surely be a less appealing health care system down the road.

More Must-See Coverage

For people who want more information on the subject, you can also view an excellent, succinct (11 minute) video presentation by Walker linked on the GAO site:

America’s Fiscal Future

It provides a clear overview of the financial picture this country is facing. In it, you’ll see visuals like this one that depict just how large the projected shortfalls are:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Health Care, Nutrition - Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.